Greetings in the Name of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ! It is our hope and prayer that you are well.
The past month has been a busy one for us. I have been able to realize my desire to travel less so far during this year. There have been a couple of months, however, which have been as full as much of last year was. May was one of those months. The month started with our daughter Jessica’s graduation from the University of Central Oklahoma with her Masters Degree in Applied Mathematics (yes, we are proud of her!). Immediately afterward I began a three-day Gospel Meeting in King Ryder, Arkansas, which is a supporting congregation for our work. I always enjoy being with those brethren!
The following Sunday (May 13) I gave reports of our work to two other supporting congregations very special to us; Bagwell, Texas in the morning and Blossom, Texas in the evening.
The following Saturday I drove to Denver. On Sunday morning, May 20 it was a real joy and privilege to be present for Bear Valley’s graduation ceremony. On Monday, May 21 I began a week of teaching a class in Guatemala via the video conferencing system located here at the Denver campus. There are still some bugs to work out of the system, but it is a great tool and truly a marvel to be able to teach and interact in real time with a class of students over 2,000 miles away!
I returned home Friday evening by air, leaving my car in Denver. Over the next few days Noma and I finished the job of packing (at which she had been laboring diligently during my numerous absences) and preparing for our move. On Sunday evening, May 27, the brethren of the North MacArthur congregation in Oklahoma City, where we have worshiped for the last three years, gave us a very nice going away party. We will definitely miss the brethren of that great congregation!!
Wednesday evening, May 30, was my last time to teach the Early Bird Class at North Mac. I have come to love teaching that class and the students who attend it. I will miss them greatly and I wish them well and all of God’s blessings!
After class, we decided to hit the road and get as far as we could before the storms hit that had been forecast, as well as to make the drive on Thursday as short as possible. We made it to Blackwell, Oklahoma and got into a motel with the storm almost on top of us. The next day we made it on into Denver by about 3:00 p.m. Several good brethren were there to help us unload, for which we are eternally thankful. Our updated contact information is given below. We will be
changing our phone numbers and I will have that information in the next newsletter. For those of you viewing this online, I will send out an email notification as soon as the number is changed. Our email address will not change.
As I mentioned last month, we are still looking for additional support. I am, once again, inserting an excerpt from a newsletter of a couple of months ago.
“As you may or may not know, the cost of living in Denver is higher than in central Oklahoma. Since we have not had full support since we began this work full time, we are in need of raising more in making this move. Also, Noma has expressed a desire to become more involved in the work by traveling with me when possible and teaching ladies’ classes on the field, taking advantage of her language skills, as well. This will mean raising more support since she would not be able to work outside the home as she has done in the past. For the time being, she is looking for a teaching job in Denver until this support is raised.
Presently, the amount we are lacking to put us at full support to cover all of this is approximately $1,900.00/month. If you can help with any part of this, please contact me or our sponsoring congregation. The contact information is given below.”
Thank you all for your continued interest in our work. May God richly bless you!!
Donnie Bates
Contact Information:
4801 S. Wadsworth Blvd.
Unit #3-105
Littleton, CO 80123
(580) 326-1914
Email: dnbates1@gmail.com
Sponsoring congregation:
4th & Jackson church of Christ
P.O. Drawer 549
Hugo, OK 74743
(580) 326-3457